Thursday, September 29, 2011

Sportsman's Rally 2011

At last! Finally, I give you a post of my church's 9th Annual Sportsman's Rally.

The Rally is an all-day sportsman's event in which nearly 1,500 people come to take part in. It takes place on a local farm owned by some cousins of ours. There are many different stations to try; they include: fishing, hole-in-one archery, backwoods archery, target shooting, skeet shooting, rock climbing, golf, and face-painting, which is what my sisters and I did (we do it every year), and maybe a few more.

Below, is the logo on our t-shirts. I don't think you can tell in the pic, but the green color is very girly. The majority of people, mainly the women who helped, loved them, but the men? Not so much. =D

We arrived on location a little before 9a.m. and the sun had not yet driven the fog away.

It was beautiful.

This is the rock climbing wall. The kids love this thing, but not me.

I'm not too fond of heights...

The pic below is the Survey Tent, where people sign up for the gift card prizes but are also personally witnessed to one-on-one. I think you'll see it again in just a minute.

This large, white tent is where we have music - a band called Lakeside was here this year - and also a sermon, by guest speaker Randy Sharp, as well as the prize giveaways (everyone's favorite time). We have for the past couple years given away a four-wheeler, among other prizes like pocketknives, toys (for the children), guns, archery equipment, tree stands, etc. But the four-wheeler is our biggest prize. And, because this is a ministry, church members do not sign up for any of the prizes in order to fully display the love of Christ by giving our guests an equal chance of winning.

And, here we are! Hello, Catlia!

She wasn't too happy of me taking her picture...

Here's a friend, I'm going to call her Fox. ^ - ^

Here's a pretty pic of Rhen and her delicate, little angel wings that Catlia painted. They're both very talented artists.

Fox is painting UT orange on this little girl's cheek. Our football team, the TN Volunteers, played that day.

Catlia is painting a Hello Kitty face on this girl. We had all kinds of images to choose from (cat, dog, bunny rabbit, shotgun shells, smilely faces, Batman symbol, hearts, cross, target with arrow, etc...) One of the most-used was the Browning buck symbol. Of course, Hello Kitty was pretty popular for the girls... =]

This is the Face-Painting Tent. We stayed pretty busy.

Here's another friend, Mandy, with a beautiful butterfly. She and Fox were a great help to my sisters and I. Thanks, ladies!!

Again, this is the Survey Tent with a full line of people. Wow.

This is the Fishing Station. In the clearing beyond the white vehicle there is a rather large lake, fully stocked with catfish, bluegill, etc.

That's my Poppy driving the International, with my grandmother right behind. This is how we shuttled the people from the entrance tent to any of the stations. Another tractor was driven with a similar buggy by another cousin/neighbor of ours. Have you guessed that we're related to pretty much everybody?!?

Anyway... Poppy and GB drove people to and from, with Grandmama acting as a tour guide - telling what station this is or what that is and so on...

Rhen and Catlia had spent hours with Poppy, just cleaning and waxing Big T (that's what we call the cab tractor) for this day. It looked great!

This is the Registration Tent where the people sign in to enter.

Back in the woods is the Skeet Station. The whole time during the Rally you could hear the monstrous boom of the shotguns as men, women, and children shot the little clay targets. My dad, mother, and brother manned this station.

Many, many people came to this ministry of Clearwater Church. And it is just that, a ministry.

I do not know the number, but many souls were gathered for Christ, and that is the ultimate goal of our church, to spread the Gospel through a Sportsman's ministry, to multiply the family of Christ in a way that these people can relate to, whether it's one precious soul or all 1,500 that come to know Him. This may have been the first time for hundreds of them to hear of the hope that we have in our Savior and King. It is a great opportunity.

Fairfarren, my friends!

Lady Elisera

P.S. Random side note (this has nothing to do with the above post): Last Sunday, Chris Sligh came to our church and performed during morning service, then gave a concert that night. It was great to see a well-known face who is so on fire for our King. We were able to hear a brand new song from him called, "Sweet By and By." (Not the hymn, but a never-before-heard-song that he literally wrote the day before!) It was beautiful! I can't wait to hear it again!!!

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